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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

tiny friends

This past summer I had a frequent and tiny guest in my bedroom. One sunny morning I woke up to see her: a shiny little red bug with polka dots crawling along the edge of my pillow. After my initial fright at seeing something creeping on my white sheets, I relaxed and let her be. I love ladybugs, I think everyone does. We have many in our garden and they are always a happy sight.

A few nights ago as I was reading in bed she was there again and kept flying around me, landing on the pages of my book, crawling over my hand, being very persistent in getting my attention. I finally carried her over to the window and let her out into the night. But I could hardly concentrate on my book - a fictional novel about a woman in London who has no memory of her early childhood and bit by bit she is uncovering events from the blank years of her life. I closed my book and suddenly saw a forgotten image from my own childhood, a large ladybug stuffed animal with a music box inside. Our family traveled and moved extensively but as a small child I often had that musical ladybug nearby. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought about how contemplative spiritualists use the symbolism of animals or figures in dreams in order to discover divine messages. I vowed to look up ladybug in the morning. In German, the ladybug has two names, Glückskäfer, (Luck-bug) and Marienkäfer (Mary-bug). The ladybug (“Our Lady”) is connected to good fortune and the unconditional love of Mother Mary. I discovered all sorts of history and symbolism by quickly googling ladybug. She is truly an amazing little creature that is beloved in cultures all around the world and has many interesting anecdotes and fortunes associated with her. Do you know the ladybug nursery rhyme? I used to tell it my children when they were very little. You can find it and where it came from here.

After I had done enough research on ladybugs I browsed through some other websites that I check now and then. My heart did a little cartwheel when by chance I came across this little message! Read this, if you are so inclined, and enjoy the video link.